This application is a continuation of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/U.S.12/32343 filed on Apr. 5, 2012, entitled “DISTRIBUTED MEDICAL SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/473,591 filed on Apr. 8, 2011 and incorporated by reference herein. The present application claims the benefit of each of the foregoing applications.
Innovations in diagnosing and verifying the level of success of treatment of disease have migrated from external imaging processes to internal diagnostic processes. In particular, diagnostic equipment and processes have been developed for diagnosing vasculature blockages and other vasculature disease by means of ultra-miniature sensors placed upon the distal end of a flexible elongate member such as a catheter, or a guide wire used for catheterization procedures. For example, known medical sensing techniques include angiography, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), forward looking IVUS (FL-IVUS), fractional flow reserve (FFR) determination, a coronary flow reserve (CFR) determination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), transesophageal echocardiography, and image-guided therapy. Each of these techniques may be better suited for different diagnostic situations. To increase the chance of successful treatment, health care facilities may have a multitude of imaging and sensing modalities on hand in a catheter lab during a procedure. However, each imaging modality in a catheter lab traditionally requires its own special-purpose diagnostic equipment. For instance, an imaging modality may require a catheter, a patient isolation module (PIM), a user control interface, a display, a specialized power unit, and a processing unit such as a customized personal computer. Traditionally, all of this equipment is located in the catheter room itself during a procedure and depends on a substantial wiring infrastructure for network connectivity and dependable power. Physical space is typically at a premium in catheter labs and each additional imaging modality employed in a catheter lab complicates the pre-procedure setup and limits the movement of health care professionals during procedures. Additionally, known problems arise when attempting to locate portions of a diagnostic system outside of a catheter lab. For instance, data transmitted between a PIM and a processing unit may degrade as the distance between the two increases. Similarly, traditional long-distance communication links do not support the bandwidth required for modern cardiovascular imaging techniques.
While the existing devices and methods have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects. The medical sensing systems and associated methods of the present disclosure overcome one or more of the shortcomings of the prior art.